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Adding apples to your regular dietary intake could cause weight gain if you eat too many. Some researchers have also questioned whether the sugar in apples, fructose, might be more likely to cause weight gain than other sugars, but this hasn't been proved. Fructose is one of the sugars found in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.

Calories

Apples come in many sizes and different varieties. The size of the apple determines its caloric value; different varieties all have essentially the same number of calories. A medium apple provides 95 calories, while a large apple can contain 116 calories. A small apple contains just 77 calories.

Weight Gain

If you decided to add five medium apples a day to your normal food intake, you would increase your daily calories by nearly 500 per day, or 3,500 per week. Since 3,500 calories equal 1 pound of body weight, you could gain 52 pounds in a year by eating five apples per day. But if you substitute an apple for a higher calorie snack, you will lose weight.

Fructose in Apples

Apple contain fructose, one of the main sugars in fruit. Fructose is also used to make high-fructose corn syrup, a sugar that breaks down differently than glucose in the body. Glucose is absorbed into all body cells for energy, while fructose is used only in the liver. Fructose in the liver can produce triglycerides, a type of fat that can contribute to heart disease. In normal amounts, such as are found in fruits and vegetables, fructose probably has has no harmful side effects. Americans today eat, on average, 55 grams of fructose per day, compared to 15 grams in the early 1900s, according to an article on the 2011 Harvard Health blog. This increase in fructose intake might be contributing to health problems such as obesity and diabetes.

Fructose Health Issues

The rise in fructose intake parallels the rise in obesity and metabolic disorders such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. But that doesn't mean fructose causes these problems, Harvard Health editor P.J. Skerrett cautions. If you do struggle with overweight, diabetes or metabolic disease, decreasing your fructose intake by cutting out foods like apples probably isn't the answer. While your body doesn't differentiate between fructose from table sugar and fructose from apples, apples, unlike refined sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, have numerous health benefits. Apples are one of the most common sources of flavanoids, plant substances that can reduce the risk of chronic disease, in the American diet, Dr. Silvina Lotito of the Linus Pauling Institute reports.

About the Author

A registered nurse with more than 25 years of experience in oncology, labor/delivery, neonatal intensive care, infertility and ophthalmology, Sharon Perkins has also coauthored and edited numerous health books for the Wiley "Dummies" series. Perkins also has extensive experience working in home health with medically fragile pediatric patients.